Crossfader’s Week of Horror: Instant Picks of the Shriek
Gone are the days of scrolling mindlessly through your queue! No longer will you have to sift through the vastness of what’s coming to the instant viewing wastelands this month! Whether you’re looking for a stellar film or an exciting new show to binge, Instant Picks of the Week brings you the hottest releases in film and television on instant viewing platforms that we know you’ll love, or at the very least not despise.
AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (Amazon Prime)
Not many movies can bring about laughs in one moment and absolute terror in the next, but John Landis’s AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON proves that a great horror film can have both. While hitchhiking through northern England, Americans David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) get attacked by a mysterious beast on the moors, leaving Jack dead and David badly wounded. As David heals in a London hospital, he starts to have strange dreams and visions, making him fear that during the next full moon he will become a werewolf. Makeup artist Rick Baker won an Academy Award for his transformation effects, and even 35 years later, David’s metamorphosis from man into werewolf is horrifying to behold. Incredibly enough, though, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON also works as a dark comedy. Many of David’s visions are hysterical to watch, and Griffin Dunne as Jack brings out a stellar supporting performance as he returns from the dead to haunt and mock David. Filled with frightening and hilarious moments alike, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is a near perfect example of blending two, almost opposite, genres together. [Ethan Cartwright]
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (Netflix)
They say there are no limits to a mother’s love, and that’s what makes WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN the perfect visual experimentation to test said devotion. The film follows Eva (Tilda Swinton), a lonely widow, as she is terrorized by her neighbors for the sins of her son, Kevin (Ezra Miller). Born with an absolute absence of empathy for his mother, Kevin is a troubled child who is incapable of expressing any form of emotion. As his mother, Eva experiences a painfully difficult time forming an attachment to her son who constantly acts out and squanders her attempts to care for him. Kevin’s upbringing and Eva’s efforts to understand her son serve as the backstory and attempt to give an explanation to the motives behind a truly grievous act Kevin commits that lands him in prison. Ashamed of her son and her own failings as a mother, Eva is forced into a life of seclusion where she is unable to escape the past that haunts her every day and has left her with nothing. Told with captivating simplicity and depth, the film pushes audiences to experience the same paralyzing anguish and helplessness Eva felt as the mother of a child she had absolutely no control or influence over. Accompanied by stunning visuals, raw performances, and a chilling score, the film experiments with the genre of psychological thriller to offer a truly chilling tale of the complicated dynamic between mother and son. [Omar A. Cabezas]
